It's a girl!!

Why is our blog pink you might ask? It's to celebrate our new addition! We would would like to announce that we are currently adopting a third child. Yes, you read that right. She is a beautiful 10 month old baby girl named Hiwot. If you keep up with our blog, you will know that I have mentioned her before. Thankfully, our friends Brittney and James spent a lot of time with her. They brought home tons of video and pictures. She is so chubby and happy!

She does have some developmental delay. She cannot hold her head up well or sit up on her own. Thankfully, we were able to get a CT scan done and have it read in the US. Besides a little fluid on her brain, her CT scan was normal. She has been through so much in her short life, we were so thankful and relieved with this positive news.

I know this is surprising for many of you, but let me reassure you that we have taken a lot of time to make this decision. We have been planning and praying about it for months. We have consulted with friends, counselors, and doctors. It was obvious from the beginning that we needed to help Hiwot in some way, but it took us a little while to get to our decision to adopt her.

We have decided to name her Zoey. I have always wanted to name a little girl this, without even knowing what it means. The word Hiwot means "life", which is very appropriate for this little girl. When we decided to adopt her, I knew we needed to keep her name meaning if we gave her more western name. I was a little disappointed that I wouldn't be able to name her Zoey. When I stated searching names, I found out that Zoey comes from the Greek word for "life." It couldn't have been more perfect! We can't wait for you to meet Zoey Hiwot Brown!

Please keep us in your prayers this week. Hiwot needs a stamp from a office that has been closed for a month, but will be opening this week. Also, someone from the US is going to Ethiopia to look into all of the paper work issues that Chera and Kenenisa have. I will post any updates that we get!

Brownies

We had all of the Browns over for lunch today. I had to share a picture of our sweet nieces Jaleigh and Kiara. They brought over a Brownie that was decorated with our's and the boy's names. Without knowing, they used the same colors of the Ethiopian flag so it was perfect. I can't wait until the boys come home to meet their cousins! Thank you girls!

The boy's room

Hello. I am trying to blog more about our process. We really don't have any news right now, so I will share a little about how we are getting ready. I painted their room a few months ago. We chose a bright, light green. I also bought some letters that spelled out their name and painted each letter a different bright color. We found a really cute bedspread at Target that has a sports theme. It is bright, primary colors and the light green walls will look great with it.
Since we did all of that we haven't accomplished too much else. I have a full sized bed in storage that the boys are going to sleep in. At first we thought that we would get bunk beds for them, but many people who have adopted siblings said that the kids like sleeping together. Since they are sharing beds with other kids in the orphanage right now, I think this will be an easier transition for them.
Hopefully we will have time in the next couple of weeks to set more of their room up. I will post pictures when we do. Until then, here are their names that will go on their walls. Their big brother buddy decided to get in the picture too!